Monday, August 29, 2011

This past weekend, Independent Shane Jolley of the Independence for Bruce Grey Owen Sound Ontario election campaign asked if I was interested in helping him free the electoral district, constituency or riding from the traditional party machinery of well oiled politics here provincially, you bet you I am! Volunteering my time, academically through the sociology department at Redeemer University College and politically for a worthwhile cause, is key to our future as a community and mine as an individual in it here in the Twin Counties. Standing up against the same old status quo is very important and having Shane do that on behalf of us without advance prodding is magnificent, especially in helping to protect and conserve the way of life we all have been so fortunate to have in Grey Bruce Owen Sound, where else would one really want to be?

Though I will be working primarily in the backroom, as the campaign manager in charge of special operations intelligence and command, working on principles, policy and the campaign platform and the support poll maps at the desk, I will be looking forward to meeting all of you throughout the area and in various part of the Saugeen region of Cottage Country we live in.

Thinking back to my time as campaign youth chair and countless other positions on the various election campaigns of Bill Murdoch, looking back at the storied career of Eddie Sargent's storied career at Queen's Park as a child and reading about the days of political yore through the sharp eyes and ears of Agnes Macphail, I recognize the streak of independence we hold close to our collective hearts in Bruce Grey Owen Sound. Some else I note is, we never turn our backs on those we believe need our help or maybe having a tough and rough time about it, indeed times we are most definitely facing yet again, which is why this upcoming vote will be one of the most important in recent years, making the decision made in it just as important. We need to make our voice heard in this province, in this dominion and across the whole wide world itself, our think global yet act local economy, environment and culture demands it more than ever before so think Bruce Grey Owen Sound and vote Independent for Shane Jolley.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Both Jack Layton, former Leader of the Opposition with the New Democrats in Canada, and Barrack Obama, current President of the United States with the old Democrats in America, surprising came from similar lifepaths to end up near the very top with a pinnacle of success in their chose field of politics. Involved with their respective law, academia and civic government communities advocating and organizing for the poor, penniless and powerless, eventually becoming the candidates of change via the sharing of similar themes of hopefulness during their speeches in culturally diverse elections yet of which the aftermath culminated in similar results. From the genuine dreams of ideals came the honest truth of reality, neither could fully realize the potential either wished to completely harness, which seemed to me at least to be that lesson the parents always taught us as kids being rights versus responsibility and consequences with confidence.

From that past book of Obama's, Dreams from my Father, among the personal reflections and experiences he wrote of, I took up three quotes being these: "All too rarely do I hear people asking just what it is that we've done to make so many children's hearts so hard, or what collectively we might do to right their moral compass - what values we must live by. Instead I see us doing what we've always done - pretending that these children are somehow not our own", "The study of law can be disappointing at times, a matter of applying narrow rules and arcane procedure to an uncooperative reality, a sort of glorified accounting that serves to regulate the affairs of those who have power - and that all too often seeks to explain, to those who do not, the ultimate wisdom and justness of their condition. But that's not all the law is. The law is also memory, the law also records a long-running conversation, a nation arguing with its conscience" and "What is our community and how might that community be reconciled with our freedom? How far do our obligations reach? How do we transform mere power into justice and mere sentiment into love?" From this current letter of Layton's, Dear Friends, again I took up three quotes being these: "All my life I have worked to make things better. Hope and optimism have defined my political career, and I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about Canada. Young people have been a great source of inspiration for me. I have met and talked with so many of you about your dreams, your frustrations, and your ideas for change. More and more, you are engaging in politics because you want to change things for the better", "As my time in political life draws to a close I want to share with you my belief in your power to change this country and this world. There are great challenges before you, from the overwhelming nature of climate change to the unfairness of an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth, and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada. I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the future" and "My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world." of which I can faithfully say we should abide by these yet declare the greatest of these being love.

The Holy Bible's First Corinthians Book Thirteenth Chapter Thirteenth Verse seems to be the original of Obama's and Layton's echo we hear and cry we heed, love is something we lack, as we do too with hope and faith, which may just be the reason we also lack the empathy to be caring and compassionate towards each other as a community and thus lack the morality to be right and free as well as responsible and just as individuals within it. Both of these individuals of certain power and prestige have used their political lot in life to bring us closer to the greater good, the higher form and the supreme just, however neither could quite get us there to dialectically sublate and fulfill our absolute state of superior existence and beyond its obvious limitations, which due to sinfulness of, by and for humanity would seem to be an impossibility here on earth. We may not change the world by ourselves, but we mere created humans know who can help us and will and if we have faith, hold hope and start to show love, perhaps then and only then will we want to be more like Him our Creator.